1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video playing system and a method thereof, a computer readable recording medium, and more particularly to a system and a method for playing large-capacity multimedia video data of a scheduled event with an important blocking effect, and a computer readable recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) are an information storage medium used for storing pre-recorded sound information, movies and computer software, etc. The hardware architecture for the storage and playing of DVDs is very similar to the hardware architecture for the storage and playing of compact discs (CDs), but the storage capacity of a DVD is much larger than the storage capacity of a CD. DVDs come with different storage capacities according to different manufacturing technologies. A single-layer manufacturing technology provides a capacity of 4.7 gigabytes (G), and a double-layer technology provides a capacity of 9.4. Double-layer technology can provide a capacity of up to 8.5 G for each layer, so that a DVD is not only suitable for storing audio information, but also suitable for storing video information and large quantities of computer data.
High Definition DVDs (HD DVDs) are a new-generation DVD format compatible with the DVD format and provide an even larger information storage space than DVDs. HD DVDs' capacity is up to 15 G for a single-layer HD DVD, 30 G for a double-layer HD DVD, and 45 G for a multi-layer HD DVD. Furthermore, these HD DVDs can provide images with higher resolution, better audio quality and interactive video functions.
The common DVD for storing video information is called a DVD-VIDEO disc. The storage capacity of a DVD-VIDEO disc is very large. The information compression technology has become well developed in recent years so that DVD-VIDEO discs can provide better image quality and sound effects than a conventional CD video optical disc.
DVD-VIDEO discs operate together with a navigation engine to play interactive movies. The navigation engine retrieves a file from a DVD-VIDEO disc according to a preset directory structure to execute related video contents. Each DVD-VIDEO disc includes a main directory, and a general directory labeled as a VIDEO_TS directory, which includes two kinds of files with file extension names of .IFO (hereinafter referred to as an IFO file) and .VOB (hereinafter referred to as a VOB file). During the playing of a DVD, these files are stored as a video title set by the DVD player. All the files required for the video title are grouped together, and each video title set is composed of an IFO file and at least one VOB file.
The VOB file is called a video object set that includes the actual multimedia data. The position and format for storing multimedia data into the video object set are defined according to the IFO file. The IFO file includes a navigational data structure and a translation language. The translation language is used to describe how the structure of the multimedia data is arranged and planned.
The structure of the multimedia data includes program chain objects, program objects, and cell objects. In a title, a program chain object is linked to related program objects and the playing of the program object is determined by the data structure of the program chain object. For example, a single title includes only a program chain object, and a complex title includes a plurality of program chain objects and allows random access to various different programs objects. The titles of several program chains objects can play various different programs objects in a linear mode, a random mode, or a shuffle mode.
Each program object in a program chain object includes a plurality of cell objects. These cell objects are used for instructing a DVD player to decode a specific multimedia data in one of the VOB files. The data structure of the cell object is defined as an IFO file and the multimedia content is created in the VOB file. Each cell object instructs the DVD player to start playing at a specific position of the VOB file, and thus it is called a video object unit (VOBU). The so-called video object unit is a container object containing guide data and multimedia data.
A general DVD or an HD DVD playing program has a video seeking bar. The video pointer on the video seeking bar can be shuffled by users to randomly navigate the multimedia data played by the playing program. For instance, if the playing program plays a DVD or an HD DVD multimedia data, and a user operates the video pointer on the video seeking bar, then the playing program will jump to a new position of the multimedia data structure and will start playing the video data at the new position.
Although users can randomly select to navigate their desired video section through the video seeking bar on the playing program, some of the important video sections may be missing. In the multimedia data structure of the DVD (or HD DVD) format, the program chain object under a title includes a plurality of program objects. For example, the video schedule of a movie inserts some special events in the movie through the video object unit to enrich the content of a plot, and special events include plot analysis, selection of multiple views, and interactive plot, etc. The scheduled events are divided mainly into the event with a non-blocking effect and the event with an important blocking effect. The former refers to the effect that allows users to randomly select a video section and the effect will not affect the video playing mechanism. The latter refers to an effect that must exist or be executed, or else it will substantially restrict the playing mechanism. In a movie playing procedure, if a user operates the video pointer on the video seeking bar to jump the original time position of the movie to another time position, then a special event with an important blocking effect between the two time positions will be missed. Thus, ingenious ideas, related plots and special effects of a movie cannot be shown in the movie. Alternatively, a supplementary dialogue elimination event remains in the video that follow due to the elimination of the special event with an important blocking effect, thus seriously affecting the navigation effect, further affecting the video contents that follow, or ruining the playing mechanism. As a result, the multimedia video playing becomes incomplete.